There's leadership, and there's manipulation.
A leader lifts people by inspiring them to work hard for good things, to overcome hardship and difficult times, and to believe in and reach their potential.  They lead by example.

Manipulation seeks popularity by promising a benevolent bestowal of good things based on puffed up images of what you should have the right to have, without embracing reality or the necessity of building successes on achievement and hard work.  They lead by coersion.